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Wednesday, 30 January 2013

Non-governmental organisations and non-profit organisations are also catching up with the ever-changing environment of communications by developing innovative and creative ways of keeping in touch with audiences and spreading knowledge about peace to the rest of the world.

For instance, UPEACE announced the first APP developed for Windows 8 or Windows
RT. “A Glossary of Peace and Conflict Terms” includes the most
commonly used terms in this specific area, and provides, for those
interested in the subject, a good understanding of the terminology
commonly used in a simple manner. More than 100 terms are described.

The Glossary is very easy to use since the terms are organized in
alphabetical order. The author Christopher Miller and editor Mary E.
King are both well-renown intellectuals in the field.The application is FREE!

Characteristics are:
• More than 100 terms fully described
• App includes
search
• Developed by experts in the area
• Descriptions updated
recently

Here is the link to download it!
apps.microsoft.com/windows/es-cr/app/a-glossary-of-peace-and-conflict

Monday, 14 January 2013

We’re already two weeks into the New Year and for some of us
we can already see our new year resolutions start to fall by the wayside. This
happens every year, so why do we keep setting these kinds of goals & do
they actually work?

We live in a very goal-oriented culture and we are
accustomed to setting goals for the New Year in the belief and hope that they
help us move forward in big ways. Goals can be extremely effective, depending
on how you set and approach them. They can inspire you and help you keep the
bigger picture in mind.

Then why do so many goals or resolutions go unfulfilled? One reason that New Year’s resolutions often fail —
especially big, sweeping ones — is that people ultimately decide they aren’t
worth the trouble. The reward is so far in the future that we don’t stay
motivated to keep moving toward it. When you set smaller, specific goals, your
brain can activate behaviors it knows will help you achieve them.

If, for example, you have a vague goal of moving into
management this year, your brain will probably have trouble pinpointing the
behaviors you need to get there. However, if you instead set a smaller goal
beneath the larger one, such as networking with 3 people each week, you will
now have a specific behavior associated with achieving that bigger goal.

Another reason we fail to achieve goals is a lack of
emotional investment in them, says Anne Dranitsaris, a corporate
psychotherapist and owner of Striving Styles, a consulting firm in Toronto. She
says we set resolutions believing that our thoughts drive our behavior, even
though we are often “motivated to action by our emotions.” So it’s important to
know what motivates you, for example, the need for recognition or significance,
and set goals with that in mind.

If, for example, you know you’re motivated by recognition
from colleagues, setting a goal to be a good team player will be hard to
achieve. That’s because “being a team player means being more collaborative;
you need to distinguish yourself from others, not be more like them,” she says.
An example of a better goal is to be your department’s top sales performer.
“You would stand out not only to your peers but to your leader, which will be
satisfying for you,” she says.

Fear and anxiety, however, can undermine your efforts. If
your goal is to find a new job, and if you are a very social person with many
friends at the office, you may be anxious about leaving that behind. As a
result, you procrastinate and decide you need someone to help you redo your
résumé, when you are perfectly capable of doing it yourself.

Maybe a goal is simply not worth keeping. Becoming too
narrowly focused on certain objectives can make you so single-minded that you
don’t see other opportunities to learn, innovate or improve.

My advice is, set an overall goal and then smaller milestone
goals at short intervals. With goal-setting, what’s usually missing for most of
us is usually the action steps. People think about what they want, but they
don’t think through what will actually need to happen to get there. Happy goal
setting to all of you!

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About Me

Tadziripa Madzima-Bosha (also known as Tadzie in short) has over 12 years experience in the advertising, marketing
and communications industries. In the past she has served in senior roles such
Creative Director, Studio Manager and Senior Art Director for advertising
agencies in Zimbabwe and Tanzania namely Gary Thompson and Associates, Visual
Point Creative Group, Africa Advertising and M2 Advertising Agency. Currently Tadzie
leads the Marketing and Communications for the Africa region for Reach for
Change - an international non-profit organisation which runs accelerators,
incubators, innovation competitions and hubs for social entrepreneurs and
start-ups in 17 countries globally. Tadzie oversees the marketing and
communications for 7 countries in Africa namely Ghana, Tanzania, Rwanda, DRC,
Chad, Senegal and Ethiopia. Tadzie is also a
marketing coach who has trained over 50 social entrepreneurs in the Reach for
Change incubator with communications and marketing skills such as branding,
marketing strategy development and digital communications.

Tadzie
has vast
experience in strategizing and executing various CSR communications
campaigns in partnership with corporate organizations such as telecoms,
banks and media companies namely Tigo/Millicom, entertainment broadcasting
group Modern Times Group (MTG), Exim Bank Tanzania,
Kavli Trust and IKEA Foundation, just to mention a few. In her work with Reach for Change, she has
also worked on strategizing and executing non-profit communications campaigns
for organizations such as UNICEF, EU and British Council. Tadzie is also the
Founder of Brand@Heart, a
consultancy that provides start-ups with marketing, branding, campaign
strategy, pitching and public speaking skills. She is an amazing knowledge hub
on how to develop effective social good communications campaigns for corporate
companies and non-profit organizations andis a brilliant dynamic communicator.